Smartphone Addiction Of College Students In West Bengal And Its Effect On Their Academic Achievement

The present study was conducted to analyze the level of Smartphone addiction of college students with respect to gender, residential zone, college type and different age groups and also to investigate its relation with students' academic achievement. 100 students were randomly selected from five (5) colleges in West Bengal under four categorical variables namely gender (male & female), residential zone (rural, urban & semi urban), college type (General degree college & Teachers' training college) and different age groups (18-21 years, 22-25 years & above 25 years). English version Smartphone addiction test was prepared and used for the said purpose. In the present study, significant difference was observed among the students in their Smartphone addiction with respect to gender ($t=2.359$, $p=0.020$), but no such significant difference was observed among the students with respect to different age groups ($F=0.167$, $p=0.846$), residential zone ($F=0.973$, $p=0.382$) and college type ($t=1.670$, $p=0.098$). It was found that there was significant negative correlation between academic achievement & Smartphone addiction ($r=-0.688$, $p=.000$). Also, significant difference was found among the students in their academic achievement ($p<0.01$) in relation to different levels of Smartphone addiction (high, moderate & low). The result revealed that low Smartphone addicted students' academic performance was better in presence of the remaining two levels (high & moderate) and moderately addicted students performed better in academic subjects than that of highly addicted students. It is quite evident that Smartphone addiction is negatively correlated with academic achievement of the students.